MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

7/28 Quick trip

Justin Berg was sent back to Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday before he had a chance to get into a Major League game. However, he did warm up in the bullpen Monday night and was next in line but the Cubs pulled it out in the 13th against the Astros.

“It’s a little disappointing,” Berg said about not pitching in a game, “but I understand the circumstances. I’ll go back there and pitch like I know how and hopefully get back here as soon as possible.”

Berg was optioned to Iowa to make room on the roster for Ryan Dempster, who was activated from the disabled list.

So, did Berg have good stuff in the pen?

“As I was warming up? It looked pretty good from what I could tell,” he said. “Everyhing felt good and I was really anxious to get in but it didn’t work out that way.”

Before he left, the right-hander did drop off the neon orange backpack in front of Jeff Stevens’ locker. The pitcher with the least amount of service time has to carry the backpack to the bullpen. It’s loaded with gum, candy, whatever.

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